Traditionally, catalogs have taken the form of printed paper bound and distributed to customers. Even in the age of the Internet, printed catalogs abound where although the merchant publishing the catalog may have an extensive e-commerce website where they offer their products for sale over the internet, the catalog they publish and distribute is paper based.
In addition, since publishing a catalog using traditional methods involving ink and paper can be very costly, smaller merchants may choose to not publish a catalog altogether. An electronic catalog is typically much cheaper to produce, thus opening up additional marketing opportunities to smaller companies that may not have published a catalog otherwise.
There is thus a need for an improved electronic catalog system that emulates the traditional experience of browsing paper and ink based catalogs. In particular, a need exists for a system that enables a user to easily and quickly browse, view and order products from multiple merchant catalogs on a mobile device or web browser. In addition, the system should enable merchants to provide their own product feed and update their electronic catalogs on a periodic basis.